“Whether we are happy depends on inner harmony, not on the controls we are able to exert over the great forces of the universe. Certainly we should keep on learning how to master the external environment…but such mastery is not going to add one jot to how good we as individuals feel, or reduce the chaos of the world as we experience it. To do that we must learn to achieve mastery over consciousness itself.” [Flow, p. 9]
I picked up Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience back in the earlies and enjoy revisiting it with today’s fresh perspective. My best summation of the flow experience is when one is actively completely present and engaged in an activity that provides enjoyment– and every moment of life can be just that. It’s all a matter of perspective and acknowledgement. Quotes from the book are italicized.
“One of the most frequently mentioned dimensions of the flow experience is that, while it lasts, one is able to forget all the unpleasant aspects of life…enjoyable activities require a complete focusing of attention on the task at hand–thus leaving no room in the mind for irrelevant information… Only a select range of information can be allowed into awareness.”
A sister on the East Coast recently emailed me with some questions to which I’m sure others out there can relate! Thought I’d edit and share our first exchange.
Hey!!
I’ve been unemployed for awhile and I know you’ve mentioned how you’ve had odd jobs since you were young. I’m definitely looking for ways to gain money – if not official type employment – and haven’t had much success. I’ve had interviews, but have been rejected for lack of experience and I was recently fired after 2 days of training in a job I got in November. So there’s something wrong and the only constant is me, right? :/
Anyway, I was wondering if you had any tips or insights in how to get multiple streams of income in a way so that I can afford to live and have food ^__^ I live in NYC, so there are quite a few opportunities I suppose, versus if I lived in the boonies. :3
It’s officially been over a year since my path fortunately merged with a wonderfully talented natural hairstylist. Shanna and I connected after Damon, the owner of the West Town salon where she worked, came into Twisted Spoke (a place where I worked at that time) with flyers to promote his newly opened upscale barbershop featuring spa services.
Shanna and I hit it off instantly. I’d been natural for about a year, and the novelty of twisting/wrapping/having to do anything to my hair each and every night had worn off. I needed someone to give me a great protective style, she gave me some dope kinky twists, and my hair was good to go 24/7!
Fast forward to this year– Shanna is currently developing her website portfolio and asked me to model for her. The thing I love about her is that she enjoys experimenting with classy but funky styles– every creation is unique and I always manage to shock people, especially white folk. “Oh wow! Your hair’s different!” My hair has changed dramatically every one to two months for as long as I remember– change is nothing new in my life! I digress.
If you would have told me a year ago that I would pay over $50 to wake up before sunrise, take CTA downtown, and run nearly five miles, I would have scoffed the day you were born.
But I did just that earlier this month, and it’s one of those things that make you question reality sometimes.
There was no cause other than chocolate. No purpose other than to challenge myself. No pressures, other than for me and my part-brown BFF to eventually find our beloved friends in the midst of thousands of white people swirling about Buckingham Fountain.
And I loved every moment of it. It was a completely new and unprecedented thing for me to do, and I just love having experiences to say I lived through them.
I post that time (11:11; 1:11) on Twitter often, and Facebook occasionally. Some folk get it, while some wonder, “Why the hell are you so obsessed with that time?” I don’t go looking for it. It just appears to me; I’m often drawn to look at a digital clock at the moment it strikes 11:11 or 1:11, even in circumstances like my car, where my clock is ten minutes fast. Beyond that, I’ll just “happen” to look at a clock at 2:11, or 9:11. or wake up at 8:11. I just keep seeing 11– the divine number of manifestation.
Steve Pavlina did an excellent write-up on the 11:11 phenomena here; this is a great starter article to which I’ve linked many people who have asked my why I keep pointing out that particular time. Steve’s write-up is large-encompassing, and either it resonates or it doesn’t. It doesn’t HAVE to resonate for all, which is the beauty of it. You could read the blog, feel it’s a crock, and disregard– and that is totally okay because you have to use your unique discernment for whatever you hear. There will be no proselytizing in this space, because everyone’s path is unique. 11:11 just happens to be a key to which I am attuned– you may feel something differently.
Still, many of us feel “it.” Even if we can’t put our finger on what “it” is, increasingly humans are becoming aware of…some energy, some force, or at least a sort of “shift” that is affecting us at large. We had the Arab Spring earlier this year– countries in Africa and the Middle East revolting against tyrannies. There were the London riots where the youth torched EVERYTHING. And here in the U.S. we have Occupy…Everywhere. Even beyond Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Chicago, we now have Occupy The Suburbs, in places like Downers Grove.
It's for all of us.
It’s spreading: people no longer buy into the systems and institutions that seemingly made our worlds go ’round. People are uniting with an intention– MANY intentions– and taking action because even if they don’t know what precisely they want, they do know that something right now is very wrong.
BUT– we do live in the realm of duality, remember– even counter to this apparent worldwide unrest, we have people connecting worldwide using the technologies of this age– the Internet, Skype, social media outlets– if you want to find out something, all you have to do is search for it (ahem, “ask and you shall receive”).
Even in my in-person encounters with other human beings, I find it effortless to connect instantly on a higher and deeper level– you don’t have to be superficial because the right people on the same wavelength will end up right in your path and you all will simply “get it.” Do you feel it?
There’s a lot wrong, but at the same time it’s very right– all by design. I’m about to dive deep, so hold on– and if I lose you, feel free to read on and let this information impact you as it may, or may not. You may remember some of these things.
What IS Going on?
We human beings have a circadian rhythm– we fall asleep at night; awaken in the morning– and every new day when we rise, we’re wiser (hopefully) than we were the day before. At the very least, we have the experience of the previous day added to our belts.
Similarly on a larger scale, every 25,900 years, the Earth–with many names (in other dimensions) such as “Tara,” and “Gaia,” completes a consciousness cycle. The Earth is a living, evolving unit of the universe– a part of the whole. Just as we humans have energy centers, chakras, consciousness, the Earth has these too (meridians, portals [ahem Bermuda Triangle], consciousness). Everything is energy, and as above, so below.
Everything is cyclical, circular, rotational, and revolving. The microscopic 2-strand twists of our DNA strands replicate the exact rotation of stars Sirius A and Sirius B. The infinite Universe extends way further than the big, rotating cloud of light that is the Milky Way Galaxy, and it’s all connected– what happens to one, happens to the other. The part affects the whole. We’re fingers of the glove. Macrocosm, microcosm; as above, so below.
So each 26K-year cycle involves four periods of A, B, C, and D– we wake up at A and B, and fall asleep through C and D. And at each consecutive A-point awakening, we make QUANTUM cosmic leaps in consciousness and awareness. A lot of new information is revealed all at once. Leaving the age of Pisces (think fish/Jesus symbol/religious dogma), progressing to the age of Aquarius. Do you ever feel this information overload? Google is our information-hoarding Big Brother, but it’s also our Professor. What do you want to know? Just ask.
diagram of the 25,920-year cycle of consciousness.
This particular cycle has had many characters involved– interdimensional beings, humans, mixes of the two…dark forces, light forces, villains and guardians– in its screenplay. Star Wars, Twilight, the Matrix trilogy, the new FOX series Terra Nova (ahem, NEW EARTH)— “science fiction” as we know it could more appropriately be referred to as “75% truth But Not The Whole Picture.”
But that’s kind of intense for now, so let’s bring it down to earth and consider dolphins for a moment. They’re MAMMALS yet still like fish. They’re just so damn happy and chipper and cute. Have YOU seen an angry dolphin? Genetically, humans are quite similar to them. But in terms of intelligence, dolphins (what with their intuition, built-in sonar, etc) look at us humans frolicking in the waters with them and they see US as asleep, with regard to brainwave power.
And WE ARE asleep. Rather, we have been. But we’re waking up, as is mama Earth.
Throwback
Ancient beings on this planet Earth had vast knowledge and technology. How do you think the Great Pyramids were built so long ago? Their precise locations align with cosmic constellations, despite microscopes not having been invented back them. The pyramids were built from the TOP DOWN– and even with all the wondrous machines and technology we have here in 2011, we cannot re-create these ancient structures today if we tried. Stonehenge is another one of those epic locations which can’t be explained with all the mainstream wisdom of this particular age.
So back then, Earth’s inhabitants were able to do incredible things. We knew who we were; understood our inherent abilities by virtue of being…BEINGS.
Then we fell asleep in a series of events, and as such, religion and institutions were introduced. The people of those times had these ancient texts of wisdom and light knowledge, but since it was a Dark Ages asleep period, they could not comprehend the true power behind the information they had.
What planet are YOU from?
Enter the council of Nicea, where empiric leaders collaborated texts (one collaboration resulting in The Holy Bible) and decided what was good and not good for controlling the masses.
Hello, “humble thyself,” “your reward is in heaven if you obey your earthly masters,” and a bunch of other limiting beliefs that when shrouded in some sort of truth, are super marketable to the public at large.
“In the Thomas gospel, Jesus is presented as a spiritual guide whose words (when properly understood) bring eternal life (Saying 1). Readers of these sayings are advised to continue seeking until they find what will enable them to become rulers of their own lives (Saying 2) and thus to know themselves (Saying 3) and their legacy of being the children of “the living Father” (Saying 3). These goals are presented in the image of “entering the Kingdom” by the methodology of insight that goes beyond duality. (Saying 22). The Gospel of Thomas shows little or no concern for orthodox religious concepts and doctrines.”
All by design.
We fell asleep, instituted a whole bunch of dogmatic dramz, created education systems that barely scratch the surface of what life ACTUALLY entails, and misinterpreted what “Christ Consciousness” is actually about: knowing WHO you are as A Creator; a SPARK of the Divine. A cosmic extension, if you will. But the Church would have you believe that God is above, away, distant– a separate being ruling over and in judgment of you, which you must fear and obey. It’s a total separation from you and your higher self. “What? Me? I’m NOT GOD! God is out there, in heaven!”
No, dude.
"By the power of merkabah: I...have...the POWER!"
Let’s just call it the Universe, or The ALL::: everything is everything. As we are presently in (and ascending beyond, many of us) this third dimension, time, space and matter give us the illusion of separateness.
Everything is everything. The all is the all. There is no good nor bad; just differences in degree.
On a thermometer, where does “Hot” end and “Cold” begin? We know freezing and boiling points, yes, but just because something freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit does not mean that 33 degrees is HOTness. Same goes for the point at which things boil. It’s just a scale; a continuum of sorts– and as above, so below.
These are simple universal principles one can learn in high school physics– energy, motion, kinetics– then we just take it to the next level of metaphysics, which simply means “beyond the physical.”
By the way, did you know that compact discs (CDs) didn’t just come out in the last several decades? They ARE some ancient technology that made its way back to the present. What else can we remember? It’s all here now, anyway! Hit me up on Twitter @mizChartreuse, leave your comments, send me questions. The rabbit hole goes deep, and the time do dive in is NOW. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Keep seeing 11:11– especially ON 11/11/11.
“It’s just the beginning; it’s not the end. It’s not a secret anymore; now we’ve opened up the door. Starting tonight and from now on, we’ll never be the same again.”
